Company spokesperson Meg Gallagher told ILN that the victim of last Friday’s incident was Roy Black, 55, a helper who was operating a service vehicle at the Kayenta operation when the vehicle collided with a piece of road maintenance equipment.

Black had worked at the Navajo County operation for three decades.

While the mine was shut down immediately after the incident, production has since resumed, with internal and federal investigations into the incident continuing.

“Because the investigation is still ongoing, we wouldn't be able to offer a cause at this time,” Gallagher said.

Peabody owns four mines in the southwest US, two in Arizona and two in New Mexico.

The Kayenta mine in northeast Arizona is located on reservation lands on a highland plateau, Black Mesa.

Through lease agreements with the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe, the mine supplies about 8 million tons of low-sulfur thermal coal per year to Navajo Generating Station under a long-term contract.

Kayenta, with more than 400 workers, extracts from multiple seams and splits of seams ranging in thickness from 3 to 15 feet.